Skip to main content

The Chicago Architecture Center stands on unceded Native land. As we work to better represent Chicago’s diversity in everything we do, this spring the CAC will begin to incorporate land acknowledgement into all public offerings (tours and programs) and internal operations.

Price
Free with registration
Meet
Zoom Virtual Event (details to come)

Join us in a conversation about developing formal language and concrete actions to recognize Native people as traditional caretakers of the land and water near the confluence of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. In practice, land acknowledgement is much more than a statement of respect and humility: it calls on us all to learn, teach and internalize Native traditions across generations, including the experiences and perspectives of Native people today.

In this spirit, we invite our community of staff, volunteers, members and guests to learn about the process of shaping the CAC’s land acknowledgement and how our commitments reflect and build on similar policies adopted by cultural institutions across Chicago and North America.

Program Moderator: Adam Rubin

Adam Rubin

Adam Rubin is an architectural historian and has worked as a researcher, writer and preservation educator in cities across the country. He currently serves as Director of Interpretation at the Chicago Architecture Center. Prior to assuming this position, Adam contributed work to an historic resources study of properties along Chicago's North Lake Shore Drive, with an emphasis on the documentation of Modernist residential high-rises along the lakefront. Previously, Adam has developed and led public education initiatives and outreach programs focused on historic resources and landscapes at Docomomo US, Landmark West, the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Presenter: Monica Rickert-Bolter

Monica Rickert-Bolter

Monica Rickert-Bolter is a Chicago-based visual artist and journalist of Potawatomi, Black and German descent. Passionate about storytelling through art, she advocates for cultural representation in any project she undertakes. Monica pays homage to her Whitepigeon family name as a journalist and writes to amplify Natives in the arts. Monica is also a co-founder of the newly established arts nonprofit, Center for Native Futures. There, she will use her decade's worth of nonprofit experience to create a more inclusive and equitable arts community throughout the city.

Presenter: Jamie Waters

Monica Rickert-Bolter

Jamie Waters is a Communications Associate at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Jamie supports program communication strategies through research, writing and digital content creation. She is co‐chairing a project to create an exhibit in the lobby of the Marquette Building, where the MacArthur Foundation is located, that engages with the architectural narratives and history of the building.

Presenter: Debra Yepa-Pappan

Debra Yepa-Pappan

Debra is a visual artist of international acclaim. She utilizes digital imagery to share her story about being mixed race, Korean and Jemez Pueblo. Her multimedia practice, which combines digital collage and photography, centers on themes about her mixed-race identity that incorporates symbolic imagery influenced by her cultures and urban environment. Currently, Debra serves as the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Native American Exhibition renovation at The Field Museum. Through her artwork and work at the museum, she’s committed to changing inaccurate representations of Native people and advocates for the inclusion of Native first voice and perspectives. Debra is also the co-founder of the newly established arts nonprofit, Center for Native Futures.